Mahito Forever

In traditional Japan, older kids took care of, entertained, and otherwise babysat younger kids, so in our mountain, Mahito, who was generally the oldest kid around, often got stuck with a gang of littler ones. I think that’s part of the reason that he had so much fun with his friends’ kids–he’d practiced for years catching (and releasing) snakes, frogs, turtles, and crayfish (actually he loved to eat the crawdads), making fence lizards into badges (living badges, I must say), and holding honey and bumble bees–sharing all of the neat stuff he’d entertained himself with in the mountains.

So Enid Baxter Blader’s painting of Mahito and Nate feels so right to me–teaching a kid how to do something fun was right up his alley. I am so grateful to be able to share it here.